


You're My Song

by 108am



Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ, SS501
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Childhood Friends, Cross-Posted on LiveJournal, Drifting Apart, First Love, Gift Fic, Growing Up Together, LiveJournal Prompt, M/M, Originally Posted on LiveJournal, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Running Away
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-22
Updated: 2011-05-22
Packaged: 2018-01-24 23:03:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1620167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/108am/pseuds/108am
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a five year gap in their love song.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're My Song

**Author's Note:**

> [](http://kacts.livejournal.com/profile)[**kacts**](http://kacts.livejournal.com/) fill for [](http://stillresisting.livejournal.com/profile)[**stillresisting**](http://stillresisting.livejournal.com/), using the prompt _tension_. Wrote most of this while looping [넌 나의 노래](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPbvCGfMl5Q) ♥

They had run away together when they were only sixteen, carrying with them only a handful of cash to last two or three days, a guitar, and a song that would bind them together. It wasn’t necessary a spontaneous decision to leave their homes. With the both of them coming from troubled families, it was only natural that they were drawn to each other. Living through the same tiring motion in the same quaint town, they knew everything the other felt, so it was only natural they knew what the other was thinking or feeling.

It was only natural to leave this forsaken town the moment HyunJoong turned sixteen.

Hopping on a bus, HyunJoong and Jaejoong sat down in the back, laughing about how unreal their life seemed at that moment.

“Play a song,” Jaejoong whispered, his head dropped on HyunJoong’s shoulder as he felt his eyes becoming heavy.

“There are people around.”

“Since when did you care about others?”

HyunJoong nodded his head in agreement, a toothy grin managed to pass for a moment before he turned a solemn gaze towards his beloved instrument. He played a sad song, hesitantly at first, almost as if he was awaiting backlashes from the other passengers, but when he heard none, he continued more confidently.

Jaejoong’s soothing voice soon joined the gloomy melody, singing of broken dreams and lost paths. He opened his eyes briefly to look at the passengers in front of them, and he knew it was a song they could all relate to. He closed them again, singing and focusing all of his attention on the sounds from HyunJoong’s guitar.

 

 

Twenty-three songs and five hours later, they arrived in Seoul with less money than before they had boarded the bus. Their dust-stained faces and ruffled hair distinguished them clearly from the chic city slickers, but being the young boys they were, their confidence knew no boundaries.

They had HyunJoong’s guitar and Jaejoong’s voice, so what else did they need? This alone was enough to earn them the necessary money to survive, and for the next three years, they survived on doing just that: performing in the city square, doings gigs in clubs, and even performing at random events. It didn’t matter where they were just as long as they were making music together.

They were quite the duo, people would say. There was no one like them, bounded together so naturally, it seemed unreal, almost like a fairy tale.

For a while, it did seem like a fairy tale, or perhaps just a sweet dream.

Jaejoong wished they could have dreamt longer.

 

 

After three years of living alone together, Jaejoong noticed a change in HyunJoong’s behavior. He seemed to always be bored, losing passion in the things he had once loved, and preferring to spend his time lounging around instead of playing music like they used to do together.

Jaejoong pestered him constantly, acting childlike and making jokes, but none of it fazed HyunJoong. He only stopped his attempts to stir HyunJoong when he heard that stinging question:

“Is it alright…if I leave?”

Jaejoong stared at that man before him, whose sight was set only on the outside world and not in their small, rundown apartment. With a shaky composure, he managed to let out a hoarse, “Why?”

“I…think I’m in love with someone.”

Jaejoong’s mouth was dry, but he still swallowed nonetheless. “Wh-wh—”

“His name is YoungSaeng—you know him, right?—the guy that performed at the club after us.” HyunJoong smiled. “We got to talking, and I don’t know, it’s weird. We had this instant connection, and _shit_ , why am I talking like this?” HyunJoong was laughing.

As HyunJoong was talking, his words weren’t able to reach Jaejoong’s deaf ears. It had been a while since Jaejoong had seen that bright smile, and as he felt his heart chipping, he knew what had to be done.

“Leave.”

HyunJoong stopped his chatters and looked at Jaejoong, surprise was evident on his face. “Y-you mean—”

“Just leave.”

 

 

With only the timeworn bag from three years ago and an even more aged guitar, HyunJoong walked out of Jaejoong’s life, and for a while, it didn’t register in Jaejoong’s mind that he was now just a lonely nineteen-year-old boy in the big city.

He didn’t realize this until he noticed HyunJoong’s guitar wasn’t next to their bed, and he wished they had never left their boring little town.

 

 

Five years crept by slowly as Jaejoong moved through life doing the same old things he had once despised while he was growing up. He was no longer a child, so he realized with regret how he missed doing the old routines with his best friend and first love by his side, because at least then, the monotony was bearable in spite of how much they had both lamented.

Since that fateful day, he had heard nothing from the boy—who was now a man, Jaejoong corrected himself—who walked out of his life, carrying along the music that had once brought them to Seoul. With only himself to support, Jaejoong took on odd jobs, often getting fired when he grew tired and just stopped showing up. It didn’t matter, because there was nothing great about living when you were empty inside.

 

 

Jaejoong had decided to start calling any job he took on a temporary one, because after getting fired, or simply just quitting, for the umpteenth time, he knew they weren’t exactly a lifelong career, or even one to last for more than six months.

“So,” Jaejoong started, a slight drawl was evident in his voice, “you wanted a peach coffee cake alongside your caffè latte, uh, what’s your name?”

“Um,” the other man started, suddenly feeling a sense of invasiveness from the man behind the counter. “YoungSaeng, Heo YoungSaeng.”

“Right.” Jaejoong punched in the order, and then added under his breath, “What a girly order, you best friend slash boyfriend-stealing fruitcake who happened to show up at this café of all places in Seoul.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing.” Jaejoong flashed the obligated smile his employer often chastised him for not having. “Your order will be ready in a moment, sir. If you’ll stand over here, an employee will get your order for you.”

YoungSaeng moved over hesitantly, feeling a sudden chill down his back.

“Next.” Jaejoong had a feeling this new job would last for a while.

 

 

In spite of the same weird employee taking his order, YoungSaeng still continued to frequent the café, ordering the same drink and a different companion dessert with his beverage.

“Um, HyunJoong,” YoungSaeng started one afternoon, gazing at his latte. “Do you smell hot pepper in this?”

HyunJoong opened the lid, and stared at the red flakes floating atop. “Cool, new flavor?”

YoungSaeng glared.

 

 

Around the middle of the second month since Jaejoong had started working in the café, he noticed a familiar face accompany YoungSaeng. Ducking under the counter, he uttered a quick, “ _Fuck!_ ” before waddling into the kitchen.

“ _Changmin!_ Take the order outside!”

Changmin looked through the small window in the middle of the door. “Don’t you always take that man’s order, hyung?”

“Yes, but I can’t today.”

“Why?”

Jaejoong fidgeted from his position on the floor. “I may have put odd stuff in his drinks before, and now he’s here with his boyfriend, who happens to be my old boyfriend, and it’s, fuck, just get out there, you brat!”

“…what’d you put in his drinks?”

“Hot pepper flakes, horseradish, grape jelly, mayonnaise, and oh, I put a huge chunk of kimchi in his girly drink once, too, and—get out there, you jerk!”

Changmin shrugged, and left to take the order. Jaejoong peeked from behind the door, managing to grasp only a few words, but he heard clearly what YoungSaeng asked after placing his order, “Where’s the weirdo who usually manages the counter?”

Changmin started to open his mouth to respond, but before he could get a word out, he could hear the kitchen door slamming opened, and Jaejoong stomping out with a stream of curses rolling off his tongue.

“ _Jaejoong!_ ”

Oh, fuck, Jaejoong mentally face palmed as he turned to smile at HyunJoong. “’Sup?”

“Am I done here, hyung?”

“Yes, yes you are, Changmin,” Jaejoong answered wearily, watching from the corner of his eyes as Changmin trudged back into the kitchen. As he looked at HyunJoong’s piercing stare, his only thought was, “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!”

 

 

“You’re an idiot,” HyunJoong stated simply when he dragged Jaejoong to a nearby park.

“You’re a traitor,” Jaejoong retorted, and this time, he really did face palmed when he saw HyunJoong’s confused face. He wailed pitifully, “You left me! Alone! For five fucking years! In a big city and—stop laughing at me!”

“Sorry, but,” HyunJoong looked around awkwardly before finally stopping his gaze at his feet. “I just had to leave.”

“You were supposed to come back.”

“What?”

“Like that saying.”

“What saying?”

“‘If you love something, set it free, and if it’s meant to be, it’ll come back.’”

There was an awkward pause, before HyunJoong finally found his voice, “Where’d you hear that corny saying?”

Jaejoong shuffled. “I worked in a book store seven careers back.” Jaejoong waved off HyunJoong’s perpetual blank stare. “Never mind, just, I’ll leave now. Go back to that wonderful, girly boyfriend of yours and—”

“He’s not my boyfriend anymore.”

Jaejoong was now the one with a confused face.

“We broke up two years ago. We’re just roommates now.”

Jaejoong’s face was a complete blank before he finally registered HyunJoong’s words. “Really? Well, why didn’t you—oh, shit.”

“What?”

“I’ve been…sabotaging his drinks.”

HyunJoong laughed obnoxiously, looking like he was on the verge of keeling over. “So you’re the weirdo YoungSaeng was always talking about.” He straightened up, a conflicting expression passed by. “Damn.”

“What?”

“I think he has a crush on you.” HyunJoong avoided Jaejoong’s sudden punches. “I’m serious, why else would he go back to a place that kept serving him weird crap?”

There was another awkward pause.

“I-I’ll just disappear back to my rat hole now.”

“What about your job?”

“I think I’m fired.”

“Ah. Can I come along?”

 

 

They’d return to the same rundown apartment from eight years earlier, and as HyunJoong walked around admiring the old tidbits that were still left in place, he heard Jaejoong’s voice started hesitantly.

“What about YoungSaeng?”

“I think he’s wanted to kick me out and get a new roommate.”

“Me?”

“Ye—well, maybe. He seems to also have a thing for this guy, KyuJong.”

Jaejoong scoffed. “What a slut.”

“And well, aren’t you a little bitch yourself.” HyunJoong grinned.

“…Play a song, HyunJoong.”

“I don’t have my guitar with me.”

Jaejoong fidgeted in his place. “I-I have one.” Jaejoong retrieved a guitar case from inside his small closet. Opening the clasps, he pulled out a dated guitar, mumbling awkwardly to try to avoid his embarrassing explanation.

“Where’d you get this?” HyunJoong sounded and looked like a kid in a toy store. “This is nice, really. Where’d you get it?”

“I, um, a while back.” Jaejoong sat down next to HyunJoong. “I saw it in a pawn shop, so I wanted to buy it. It reminded me of you, a little, I guess.”

HyunJoong whistled in admiration. “Must have cost a lot.”

“It was the only job that I took that lasted for six months. I survived on jam toast.”

HyunJoong laughed, and then he quieted down to retune the instrument. He played a note. “Want to…get back together?”

Jaejoong huffed. “Just what kind of slut do you think I am—”

Jaejoong’s protest was silenced by a kiss. When they had pulled apart, HyunJoong grinned. “You’re my slut.”

“Bastard. And you called me corny.”

 

 

HyunJoong had played the same song from the time they had boarded that bus, but Jaejoong refused to sing along. When HyunJoong looked at him confused, Jaejoong smiled. “I’ve learned…to appreciate what I have.”

“Want to write a new song then?”

Jaejoong kissed him as a response, knowing this silly love song of theirs was all that he needed.


End file.
